The Flame of Youth
by Inulover37
Summary: Summer vacation is finally here, but Kagome just doesn't know what to do with her life now that school is over for a while. Soon her life with change. For better, or for worse.
1. Meet

My computer is finally working again after I don't know how long. It has been so frustrating because of that. A new story popped into my mind, AKA, the one you're reading right now. The first chapter will be kinda slow, it's an intro type thing. It'll get better, I promise. What are you sitting there for, get on with reading it!

But before you do, I give special mentions: CrimsonKuroNeko-chan, Areskickass13, Gx Fangirl of Rainbows, and Inuyashasgurlforfivelifetime s. You guys have been my loyal fans for all of One Thousand and One Nights, and I commend and thank you once again!

**Chapter 1: Meet**

First of all, I had no idea what was going on. All I wanted was a simple, fun summer break with my friends. But I just had to get wrapped up in all of this. Stupid Eri. Stupid Yuka. Stupid Ayumi. It was all their fault, not mine. None of this would have happened if I had changed my mind.

And explosion erupted next to me and I ducked behind a nearby dumpster. I leaned against the metal and slid down to the floor. My heart was racing. Before these recent events, I would have never believed that anything like that could exist. But, here I am, hiding behind a putrid dumpster shaking like a young Chihuahua. Freaking world. It's so frustrating.

I clenched my hands into fists. I hated myself for falling for him. Completely despised myself. He was selfish, rude, egotistical, not to mention stubborn. Yet my mind decided to be infatuated. I closed my eyes and sighed. I left him out there, fighting those, things. I was worried. I wanted to get out there and help him. I knew I could, somehow…

(Five weeks before)

The last day of school. It was finally here. I could finally get rid of all of the responsibility of getting all of my homework done, all of the projects, and the day-to-day schedule. It felt like a foreboding weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I cherished the feeling.

As I walked home from school for the last time until the fall, I stopped for an ice-cream-cone. A sea-salt flavored cone of deliciousness. I had no idea why or how, but it was my favorite. I smiled and climbed the steps to my family's shrine. Higurashi Shrine. (I bet you know who the narrator is now huh?) My whole life had passed by the eyes of this place. It was my closest friend, even if it was just a place.

By now, my ice-cream was long gone, and I was munching on the waffle cone. I walked up to the main house, and went inside. I removed my shoes, set them by the door, and strolled up the stairs to my room. I tossed my bag onto the floor and collapsed on my bed. The fabric felt nice and cool.

I gathered up the part of the blanket that I could reach, Sleeping for a week seemed like I great idea. I propped myself on my elbows and reached over to my alarm clock. I set the time for 5:00p.m. An hour and a half. It was a start. Just as I was entering Dreamworld, my little brother came striding up to my door, and pounding on the wood. "Kagome!" He shouted, his voice burrowing through the door. "Mom wants you!"

"Sota!" I yelled back, getting up and opening the door. I glanced down the hall, just to get a glimpse of the backside of my brother, running down the stairs.

I quickly followed him downstairs and to the kitchen. My mom was busy cooking, Gramps was in the other room with a newspaper two feet away from his face, and Sota was entranced by the television once again. "Mom? Sota said you needed me for something?" I inquired.

My mother turned away from the stove and handed me an apron. "Yes. Sweetie, can you start cooking the rice and making the rice balls for dinner tonight?" She asked, turning back to our main course for dinner.

I nodded. "Sure, Mom." I agreed, then pulled out the ingredients from the pantry.

First, the rice. Pretty much the solitary part of rice balls. Except for the onigiri. I poured the grain into the rice cooker, turned it on, and went to the fridge. I grabbed a bag of plums and set them on the counter beside the cooker. I also pulled out a plate from the cupboard. "Sota!" My mother yelled, not turning away from the food. "Can you set the table please?" There was no answer. "Sota?"

Gramps heard the situation and took control. "Sota, my boy, do you not hear your mother calling your name?" He demanded while striding over to my brother, then switched off the television. "Answer her."

"Yeah, Mom?" Sota finally called back.

"Can you set the table?"

"Yeah." He repeated. He came into the room and grabbed all of the dishes. He disappeared through the doorway once again as the rice cooker beeped at me. The rice was done. I flipped the switch to the off position and opened the lid. Steam escaped and floated around my face. The heat was soothing for some reason. I reached in and pulled out a handful of steaming hot rice.

If I moved quickly enough, my hands wouldn't get burnt, and the rice would stick to itself. I molded the grain, shaping it into a ball. From the bag of plums I pulled out earlier, I grabbed a small one, and stuck it in the rice's back. One done, three to go.

By the time I was done making the rice balls, Sota and my mother had finished with their things and dinner was getting set on the table. My rice balls were near the center of the table. My family sat down in their spots and clapped their hands together. "Itadakimasu!" We said in unison, then began filling our plates.

Silence filled the room, except for the sound of chewing mouths. A few minutes later, when everyone was sufficiently full and was snacking on my homemade rice cakes, Mother began to engage the family in conversation. "So, Kagome," She started. "How was your last day of school?"

I swallowed my mouthful of food. "It was great!" I said happily. "We barely did anything school-related in class today. It was like an in-school vacation."

"What about you, Sota?" Mom asked, turning to my brother, who was busy stuffing his face.

He smiled and mumbled through the food. Gramps didn't take this action lightly. "Chew and swallow your food before you speak boy!" He demanded loudly.

Sota listened immediately for once, and answered again. "Mine was pretty much the same thing as Kagome's." He stated, then returned to eating. "We spent the entire day outside though, not inside like you Kagome."

I ignored my brother. For some odd reason my mind was on other things. "Can I be excused?" I asked after returning to the real world. "I'm not that very hungry right now."

My mother smiled at me. "Sure, honey. I'll save it for you for later."

Now seemed like a good time for that nap that I wanted. I headed up to my room once again, hopefully for the last time tonight, and went to the bathroom. There I took a shower and changed into my pajamas. Before I got under the covers I checked the time again. 6;30. How dinner could last two and a half hours was beyond me, all I wanted was to sleep. I climbed into bed and closed my eyes, falling asleep almost immediately after.

My eyes snapped open. I sat up quickly and wiped my forehead with my sleeve. Beads of sweat dotted my face. I slowly got up and went to the bathroom. I flicked on the light, almost blinding myself in the process. After I had gotten used to the bright lights, I took a washcloth from the drawer and wet it underneath the faucet. After I had cleaned my face I looked into the mirror. Honestly not the best I've looked, but then again, I was just sleeping. Not that it was a good sleep. I haven't gotten a nights rest for a while now. I had no idea why, but it was annoying me. I caught a glance of the clock. Even if it said 8;30a.m., it felt like it was 3:30a.m.. "I guess I should get dressed and eat breakfast." I said to myself quietly.

The rest of my family was already downstairs and eating when I came down. "Good morning, Kagome." My mother greeted me as I sat at the table. "What would you like for breakfast?"

I noticed that she was making waffles. "Waffles are fine." I said, yawning.

"Still not having a good sleep?"

I shook my head. "No." My mom put a plate with my breakfast in front of me. "Thanks. And I don't know why."

"Maybe it's just a phase you're going through." She tried. "Or because of your busy schedule with school."

"Maybe." I agreed, and got to eating. After my first bite, I continued. "But school's over now, shouldn't it have stopped by now?"

"Give it time dear."

I ignored my mother. Sometimes she wasn't very much help at all. But I didn't give the issue any more thought. Taking another bite, I heard the phone ring from down the hall. My mother went to go answer it and called my name after a few minutes. "Kagome. It's Eri, she wants to talk to you." She said.

I pushed my plate away and also walked down the hall. I picked up the phone from where my mom had left it on the counter. "Hello?" I asked into the microphone.

"_Hey Kagome! It's Eri. I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out today. Do a little shopping around. What do you say?" _

I didn't hesitate. "Sure!" I said as happily as I could.

"_Okay! I'll meet you at your house in a little bit. See ya!" _

The phone clicked off on the other end and a long drone replaced Eri's voice. I set the phone down back in it's rightful spot and went back into the kitchen. I told my mom about my plans for the day and went back to my room. I quickly grabbed a bag with my stuff in it and left the house. At the bottom of the stairs that led up the hill to my house, I saw Eri, along with my two other friends, Ayumi and Yuka. "Hi Kagome!" Eri shouted up to me as I ran down the steps to them. "Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!" I answered as happily as I could. "Let's go."

As we walked up to the mall, I realized something. There wasn't any real reason that I needed to come here I didn't need any clothes, no jewelry, no make-up. My hair was fine too. Why then, you ask, did we come here? I have no idea. But I sighed, and went inside anyway. It was a bit cloudy out, and it looked like rain was going to hit any second. Better safe than sorry. I didn't really spend much time looking around in the stores. I spent most of my time just staring into space. Like I usually do. By now, I'm surprised that I haven't gotten lost yet. I would just subconsciously follow whomever I was with. Weird. A few times I would snap out of my trance and look around. To get a jist of whatever was going on. Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi were headed off to another store, and I followed behind, taking my time. At the time I was still in one of my trances, and I bumped into something hard. That got me to come back to the real world and see what was happening. I had managed to knock into a man. "Oh, I'm sorry." I said quickly, bowing in respect.

I lifted my head and took a peek at his face. He was young, maybe late teens. Dressed in a deep maroon t-shirt and dark navy blue jeans. He wore a baseball cap over his long, silver hair. "Watch it next time, okay?" he said.

I stood up all the way and glanced into his eyes. They captured me right away. I don't know how or why, but they did. They seemed to emanate a warm golden amber glow. "O-okay." I stuttered, trying to straighten myself up.

The man scoffed, and walked away. "Who was that?" I asked dreamily, still trying to wrap my head around whoever that was.

I suddenly snapped back to the real world once again and quickly whipped my head back and forth. "Where'd they go?" I wondered.

My friends hadn't even noticed I was gone.

This day was just brilliant…

As if.

Now I know that this chapter was pretty short and didn't really go anywhere. Just please hang with me, it'll get better. Just re-read the first little section of the chapter and try to imagine on how they're going to end up like that. It'd be a little mind thing for you guys. 

and I figure this fanfic is going to be exactly 18 chapters long. The reason for that snippet of info is that I already have the whole story planned out! HAHA! I never do that! 

And remember, stay awesome. 

I'll see you guys next chapter! SAYONARA!


	2. Sighting

Here we go, the second chapter in The Flame of Youth. I'm sorry, but I have to say, I just love that title name. It's got a good ring to it don't you think? Anyways, enough of me, go ahead and read. 

Plus, most of these chapters are probably going to shorter than the usual ones I write. Just because I don't really have many filler ideas. 

**Chapter 2: Greet**

First, that boy at the mall. He was invading all of my thoughts. I hated every second of it. I didn't know the guy, I've never even seen him before. But he was everywhere. When I was eating, I wondered if he would like what ever was on my plate at the time. At the store, I wondered how he would look in a shirt I picked up. Everywhere.

Second, the boy was the least of my problems, even though summer was here, I still had all of my summer homework to do. A stack of papers mocked me every night when I went to bed. I didn't have time to do them, I had other stuff on my mind. AKA, the silver-haired boy.

Third, I couldn't rely on any of my friends. I tried to ask them about the boy, but they didn't know anything about him.

Perfect…

Three days after, I decided to call my childhood friend, Sango.

We'd been friends since we were first-years in elementary school. Even if it was such a long time ago, I could still remember it like it was yesterday. To make a long story short, I was being picked on, and she was the only one that stood up for me. We're inseparable.

And, since she's one of the more popular girls in the school, she's the one to go to if you're looking for someone. I know, I know, I don't even know if the guys I saw even goes to school, but she's my best chance of getting even a snippet of information about him. So, I pick up the phone, dial in the number, and wait for her voice to come over the line. "Hello?" I heard her say.

"Hey Sango, it's Kagome. I was wondering if you were busy today, I need help with something." I said to her, hoping she wasn't.

There was a second of silence. "Nope. I'm all clear. Meet you at Wacnonald's in 30 minutes?" She said.

"Perfect. See you then."

I hung up the phone, and breathed a sigh of relief. I went up to my room to get my stuff all together and get on my way to the restaurant.

I saw Sango waiting for me right outside of the front doors to the restaurant. I ran over to her, waving. "Sango! Over here!" I said loudly.

She saw me almost immediately an began waving back to me. I caught up with her a few moments later. "So, what is it that you wanted?" She asked me as we went in line for some food.

"Well, I need to find someone." I stated bluntly.

She gave me a glare. "Uh-oh, It's not another one of those-"

"No! Ugh, no, definitely not that. See, I bumped, literally bumped, into a guy at the mall the other day, and, well, I don't know what happened. I just, sort of…I don't know. Something, clicked."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you go to the mall without me?"

I groaned. "You're not getting the point. I don't know the guy, but yet.."

"Ah. I see. The "love at first sight" kind of deal." She said. We reached the front of the line, and ordered some burgers and drinks, Then brought the food over to a vacant table that was further away from the main tables. She put her stuff down, sat in her chair, and pulled out a notebook from her bag with a pen. "Now, tell me, what did he look like."

"Well, he was tall, late teens maybe. Around our age I think. He was wearing a dark red t-shirt and dark pants. And a baseball cap."

Sango wrote down everything I said, shorthand of course. "Okay, is there anything about what he looked like? Say, hair maybe? Eye color?"

"Silver hair. Really long, down to his lower back. And amber eyes." I stated.

"He shouldn't be that hard to find. There's not that many people with silver hair and amber eyes." She said, capping her pen, and tossing it into her bag.

I suddenly got very excited. "So you know him?!" I asked quickly, slamming my hands down on the table.

"No, I don't. I'm just saying that I don't think that there's many people with those kinds of features."

"Oh." My excitement level just went from 'uber-syked!', to 'ehh…'.

"But. I might know someone with more connections than me."

"Who?"

"My boyfriend."

I stopped, and just blinked. "You're boyfriend…the pervert?" I asked hesitantly. But it's not like I was wrong, the guy groped every single woman he saw. Honestly, he even groped me, once. But that was it. I haven't seen the guy since then. "Miroku?"

"The one and only. Trust me Kagome. If you need to find this guy, whoever he may be, Miroku can find him for you anywhere in Japan, okay?" Sango consoled me.

I found it hard to believe that this pervert could help me find that boy, but I had no other choice. I decided to trust Sango's decision. "Okay. But this time he better not try any funny business with me." I warned her.

Sango laughed. "I'll make sure he won't. Now, since we're out. Let's have some fun." She said happily, and dug into her burger, taking very large bites.

I laughed with her. Seeing Sango like this is a rare sight, for some people. For me, when we're together, it's very common. Usually she's staring off into space like me, and that's what makes us a good team. When we're together, we can concentrate on stuff we never used to before. Very useful for schoolwork.

I'm getting off subject though. As I was saying, after we finished eating, we decided to go to downtown Tokyo. In the back of my mind, a thought was nagging at me, What if I saw that boy in town? I tried to push it away as much as I could, but it still kept coming back. I had this weird feeling in my gut too. I didn't know what it was, or why I had it, but it was there. We were walking down the sidewalk, with a box of Pocky for each of us. Sango and I headed to the book stores. We needed to stock up on new manga. When we were there, I felt like I was going to see someone I knew. And speak of the devil, that boy was there. I immediately pulled Sango over behind a shelving unit and peeked around the corner at him. The boy hadn't seen me or Sango, and was flipping through the newest volume of Rin-ne. "Sango. He's here!" I said quietly and urgently. "That boy that I was telling you about!"

"Really?" She said curiously, standing up and looking around for him. "Where?"

I pulled her back down, and peered back around the corner. "If you would just be quiet for a moment and listen to me, I would tell you. He's over by the Shonen Jump." I told her, pointing over my shoulder and around the shelving.

Sango poked her head around the corner, taking a good look at him. "He's good-looking, that's for sure. But that hat really doesn't go with his outfit there." She pointed out.

I flicked her in the forehead. "Will you get your mind out of the clouds and focus for five minutes?!" I whispered, pulling her back around the corner. "But that's him. Definitely."

"Okay, okay. Geez. Don't get all worked up. Now that I have an picture of him, I can show Miroku."

"Picture? What picture?!" I said loudly, standing up. I suddenly understood what I had done. I whipped my head towards the boy and he was looking around to see who had yelled. He was getting glances of me, and before I knew it, my legs and turned to jello and I was on the floor again before he could see me. I was mad, happy, and flustered at the same time; if that could even happen.

Sango was cracking up beside me. She held up her phone to show me a picture that she had discreetly taken from around the corner. Part of the shelving was in the left side, but the main part was that she got the side of his face, and got an almost perfect picture of what he looked like. I freaked out, and grabbed her phone. "When did you take this?!" I said quietly, holding it up to her face.

She took the phone out of my hand. "When you weren't looking of course. If you saw me take it, you would have stopped me." Sango said obviously.

I rolled my eyes in frustration and groaned. "You infuriate me sometimes. I swear."

Sango smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. She winked. "Were still friends though!" She said happily.

We both started laughing at the same time. But I quickly stopped her and dragged her out of the store before the boy could see us.

Anyways, I've been going to conventions lately. There's one this weekend, and it's in my hometown! I'm so excited! HAHA! (I'm going as Tamaki from Ouran Highschool Host Club, and my friend, OjoOtaku, is going as Haruhi, and my little sister is going as Honey-Senpai. IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME. 


	3. Game

I'm back. A lot of things have been getting in my way of writing. (For those fans of 3n's, I'm terribly sorry that I've not updated in so long. I really am. Please don't be mad. I'm working on it really hard, but you know, writers block…) 

There's two more authors that I must mention, Find Your North Star, and Inuyasharocks01862. Thanks for reviewing! 

Anyways, if any of you are going to Anime Central in Chicago in May, you just might be able to meet me in person. (that is, if I can go.) but I'll probably be there. I'm not running an artist alley or vendor or anything like that, though I wish I could, but I'll be in cosplay. J I'm not sure who I'm going as at the moment. But it's between Winry Rockbell From FMA, or Tamaki from Ouran HSHC. I'll tell you more once it gets closer! 

But I'd love to meet some of you guys! I hope to see you there! (P.S. I'm not going to be able to recognize any of you, so you'll have to find me. Hide and seek, YOU'RE IT.)J

**Chapter 3: Game**

Okay, so maybe I over-reacted before. Maybe I was a little uptight. I could have just played it cool and waiting until he might have walked up to me and asked me my name instead of freaking out and hiding behind a shelf. Sango wouldn't let me hear the end of it. Fuck it. I had the chance, but me and my freaky self decided to prevent that from happening. Sometimes I wish I could just go die in a hole.

I was waiting semi-patiently for Miroku to tell me something on the boy. Whatever he found out would be a blessing. I was lying on my bed, in my belly so I could stare at my phone. It sat there. Taunting me with every ounce of it's technologicalness-y whatever. I hated the thing. It just wouldn't ring. I picked it up and flipped it open. Nothing. I closed it, and dropped it back down. It bounced a bit. I sighed, and flipped over to my back. Closing my eyes, I thought of the last time I saw the boys face. It was hardened, yet soft. Cool, yet cute. And don't even get me started on his eyes. In the most general way I can describe them, it would be: perfect. Undeniably perfect.

A familiar song broke me from my trance. So now my phone decided to ring!? I snatched the phone from behind my head and immediately flipped it open, not even bothering to see who it was. (which was my mistake.) "What did you find out? What's his name? Does he go to school?" I said quickly.

"Uhm…nothing, I don't know and I don't care. Kagome, did you think I was someone else?" Sango said back to her.

I groaned out my frustration. "Sango…ugh…yeah, I did. Sorry. What's up?" I asked, regaining my composure.

I heard her laughing over the line. I stayed silent for a while longer until she started speaking again. "Let me guess, you were waiting for Miroku to call you with information about the dude." She said, still giggling.

"Stop laughing. But yes I was."

"Well then sorry to disappoint you but that's not why I'm calling. I wanted to know if you wanted to get out of the house for a while. I think you really need it after the reaction I got."

I sat there, debating weather or not I should. Sango was partially right. Maybe I was a little wound up. But what if Miroku called the house phone? What of my mom answered the phone? To many possible situations. On the other hand, going out would possibly give me another chance to see him again. (Because you know how he just HAPPENS to appear where ever I go somewhere.) "Sure. Why not?" I agreed. "Where to?"

"I was thinking that we could go to the arcade or something. Maybe laser tag too." Sango suggested.

My mood instantly perked up at hearing the mention of the arcade. I may not seem like it, but I love video games. I don't let anyone in my family know that though, they already have enough trouble getting Sota away from them. So I try to limit myself to how many I play and when I play them.

I hadn't played any in a long while. Maybe now was a good chance to keep my skills up to date. "Okay, arcade it is then." I agreed.

"Yay! Meet you there in an hour?"

"Yup. Bye."

"Bye."

I heard the familiar click of the phone being hung up from the other side. The arcade wasn't that far. I could easily walk there in about ten minutes. I decided it was a good time for a shower.

I sighed, and sat up. I paused for a moment, then sighed again, and got to my feet, then headed to the bathroom.

*~InuYasha~*

I just finished putting my shoes on and had headed out the door to start heading to the arcade. I had a few extra minutes, so I took my time getting there. I went through possible events that could happen in my head. 1: it was possible for the boy to be there again, I could run and hide like I usually do and be a creepy stalker person staring at him from behind something. 2: He could still be there, and I would finally build up enough courage to go and talk to him again. Then again, that probably wouldn't happen. 3: He could be there, and he could walk up to me and say something. Or 4: he just wouldn't be there.

It seemed to me like the one that was the most possible was the first one.

I sighed. I was doing that a lot lately. But I was soon coming up to the arcade, and I quickly banished the thought from my mind. I saw Sango waiting for me right outside the doors. "Hi again." She said happily.

"Hi yourself." I answered back as we walked in together. "Have you heard anything from Miroku yet?"

She started laughing. "You need to learn how to be more patient." Sango said. "He's working on it."

I sighed for the umpteenth time today. I shook my head to clear it of my bothered thoughts. I looked back at the room and chose a classic, Galactica. A quarter disappeared from my bag as I started the game.

Now, usually, I would be kick-ass with the game, but my mind was on other things. AKA, the boy…again. The screen showed only my ship, and now the only remaining alien. I was getting mad. Not at the game, but at myself. But thank God the game was at my fingertips, and I took out my anger on the little alien advancing towards my digital ship. I swear I let loose about 100 more shoots until I got the bugger. "Hey Kagome," Sango said curiously. "Are you okay?" She asked me the nest level of Galactica began.

"I'm fine." I quickly lied, then turned my attention back to the screen,

Sango didn't flinch. She just stood there, staring at me. I glanced over at her, but immediately went back to my game. She stood there for a moment more, then whipped her hand forward and slapped the joystick out of my grasp. On the screen, my little spaceship collided with one of the aliens deadly shots. "Sango! What was that for?" I asked her angrily.

"Something is wrong. I know it." She stated simply.

She seemed psychic sometimes. I swear. I stared at her, waiting for her to say something else, or at least let the matter go. But nope! Like always, I was the first one to break. "Okay, okay. Fine. I'm not myself right now. My mind is on other things lately and I can't seem to concentrate on something for more than five minutes without daydreaming. I was mad at myself so I took it out on the little alien dudes." I confessed loudly. I turned away from Sango and the game, so she could take my place. "Sorry, Sango."

"Don't be sorry Kagome. I kinda figured you would be like this. I came prepared to handle it." She said as she finished the level.

I rolled my eyes at her. "How?" I questioned.

She smiled while staring at the screen. "I heard that this specific arcade just received a new game, and the reveal is in ten minutes." She told me, not pulling her gaze away from Galactica.

My eyes immediately went wide with curiosity, and any thought that I previously had was long gone. "Really?!" I said as I turned back around to look at her.

Sango finished the game, and nodded at me. "They actually have a little competition with the game at the reveal. You have to sign up to play." She paused, and I made a move to dash to the front counter. But she stopped me and grabbed my hand. "Which I already did."

She let go of me and pulled out a slip of paper from her pocket. "Here's your number. They'll call you up to play in a little bit. The games are near the back."

As I grabbed the card in her hand, my heart did little backflips of excitement. "What game is it?" I questioned as I put the number 3 card in my back pocket.

"I'm not sure. They haven't said anything about what game it is. All that was leaked is that they have a new game and there's a contest. They probably want to keep the players from getting any practice for it before and beat out the other players." She told me.

We began walking towards the back of the arcade as we talked. "What about you?" Aren't you playing?" I questioned.

Sango pulled out another slip from her pocket. "You know it! I'm number 4, right after you." She said, smiling.

As we came up to the back, there seemed to be more people. Which there definitely were. Most of them were spectators though. I glanced over at the new games, which were covered by giant pieces of fabric, with different colors dancing around behind the thin cloth. There seemed to be 7 places, 1 for each player. I glanced up at the clock on the wall. 2 minutes left until play time. By now, a few butterflies had formed in the pit of my stomach. But I was too excited to be nervous. Time seemed to move faster than normal, the manager of the arcade was already speaking into a microphone. "welcome one and all! I'm pleased that so many of you came to the event. Now, in a minute or two we'll read off the contestant names so they can take their positions, but at the moment I'm going to hand over the mic to the representative from Bideoke-mu Video Games. Give a big hand for Hotaru Kenshin!"

All of the spectators, including Sango and me, clapper as a middle-aged man grabbed the mic, shook hands with the manager, and began speaking. "Thank you for the introduction. Again, I welcome you all of you younglings here. This game has been in development for over 2 years, and now a choice few of you will be some of the first in the world to play it. I see some of you are getting jittery, so let's get on with this. I give to you, Kuráken o Kaihi!" (Release the Kraken)

I saw the fabric get ripped off the systems dramatically. It was a beautifully made 1st person shooter game. On the screen showed scenes from a very graphic battle. From what I saw, the object of the game was to kill the Kraken and all of the other players. Seemed easy enough. But holy crap was I wrong. We'll get to that later though. Now, they began to call off the names, the first two I didn't recognize, and they soon got to my name. "Kagome Higurashi." The called out. I walked up with excitement in my step. Both the manager and the company representative shook my hand and then led me to the third seat from the left. Sango was next and did the same, but sat in the seat to my right. The next two people were also unknown to me, and the last name was finally being called. "InuYasha Takahashi." They called.

But there was no answer. The name sounded over the speakers once again. Sango and I turned in our seats, as well as the other players, to glance around the room. The door rang as it opened and someone rushed inside. "InuYasha Takahashi?" The announcer asked.

And my heart stopped.

It was the boy with the white hair.

Damn…

I knew he was going to show up somewhere. My eyes grew wide as I stared at him. I felt Sango look at me, then back at him. This time was different though. My heart didn't race like it usually did, it didn't change it's pulse at all. But a fury built up inside me. I realized that I hated the guy. He was the one that has been at the source of my problems the past few days. He was playing the new game, which gave me the perfect change to whoop his ass for everything he's done to me. I smiled evilly as I turned back to the screen. Sango followed me lead and looked at me. "How?" She asked simply.

"I don't know, but I'm going to beat the crap out of him." I answered back quietly.

A countdown clock began on the screen as I grasped at the controls tightly.

3...

2...

1...

Begin!

A load, foreign monster roar pierced the excited silence.

I found out quickly that whenever you shot the Kraken in a vital region, you would gain ammo and health points. The players were only known by a floating green number above their heads. I was three, Sango was four, and InuYasha was 7. I didn't want to act like I was only going after him, so played normally. But when ever he was in my firing range, I let loose on him. He wasn't anywhere to be found at the moment, no one was, so I shot at the Kraken's face. Extra ammo and a few health points were added to my score. Then something in the corner off the screen caught my eye, and my character was immediately on the ground, with life points diminished a little. Player 2 had shot me. I glanced over at him and saw the smirk on his face.

Time for my first kill.

I stalked the character like a cat, watching my preys every move. I decided to go sniper on him. I whipped out my long-range rifle and took up position. As he came in range, I fired, and my prey was down. I noticed to my left that he went wild, having lost to a girl. Yeah, I'm just that awesome. Player 2 was the first one out. 6 more to go, but I refused to kill Sango.

A while later, Sango was killed by player 7, which made me furious. He also assassinated players 1 and 5, while killed 6.

Now it was only me and him.

Time to get serious.

I took a deep breath, and advanced toward him in hiding. His character was warily stepping backwards. Turning every so often to look behind himself and to the sides. I went sniper again, wanting to embarrass him like I did player 2.

I discreetly shot the now still Kraken, which was hanging onto life by a thread, to boost my stats, killing the Kraken in the process. That prevented him from getting anymore boosts for himself. I took up position behind him, and fired.

The bullet hit his character square in the back. The virtual person slumped to the ground. I quickly ran off to the other side of the arena before his character rose to its feet. I hid in a cave up on the cliff side, laying on my stomach and my gun pointed to the ground below. I waiting for him to come and attempt to strike me. But after a while, nobody came. I got my character to its feet and glanced around. I was in a dangerous position, but there was no attacker.

Not for long. My character was suddenly pushed violently forward and went tumbling down to the ground beside the Kraken's lifeless body. My health was reduced to half. I tried to hurry to my feet, but a barrage of bullets stopped me. Player 7 was relentlessly attacking me from where I previously was. The bullets stopped for a moment as he reloaded, and I jumped at the chance to move. My health was dangerously low now. One more shot and I was done. I still had ammo left, but he was to far up the cliff side to reach. All I had that would possibly save me was a hunting knife. A plan formed in my head, it was risky, but it was all I had. I equipped the knife, and waited. The speakers next to my ears warned me of 7's presence. The footsteps slowly getting louder. I took another deep breath as I prepared to strike. When I thought the footsteps were close enough, I quickly drove my characters knife into the stomach of the other. He hunched over in pain. I pulled out the knife, and stabbed it in again. Repeatedly I drove the metal into the virtual person, digital blood splattering my characters face. Once I let up, the life of the other was on it's last few drops. I finished him off quickly by a bullet to the head.

I heard Sango's cheering first, then the rest of the people joined in with her. I looked over at InuYasha, an angered expression across his face. A smile spread across mine as I felt a sense of success. I laughed to myself. The representative shook my hand again and congratulated me. He handed me a card, which was proof of my victory, and also gave me free play to any game for a whole year. He then gave the prizes to the 2nd and 3rd place winners, gift cards of 50 dollars and 30 dollars. I stepped down off of the stage and walked over to Sango. She and I high-fived each other. "Kagome that was ridiculously awesome!" She said happily.

The smile on my face couldn't get any bigger, but then InuYasha caught my eye again, and it did. "That was the most fun I've had in ages!" I admitted, knowing that he had heard my comment.

I noticed a faint growl in the air coming from his direction. I just assumed that I had heard something throughout all of the commotion going on in the arcade. Congrats were thrown at me from every which way, from the little kids, to the professional gamers. During this chaos, I lost track of Sango. I wandered about through the crowd looking for her, and eventually found her standing near the far wall messing with her phone. As quickly as I could, I managed to manuver my way through the people and tap her on the shoulder. She jumped. "What's going on?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing." She answered, much more quickly than she normally would. She even avoided making eye contact with me, and I knew something was up.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm very sure. Hey, can I see your phone for a second?"

"Uhm…sure. Why?"

"Mine's…uh…running low on power. I need to tell my dad that I'll be home soon."

I shrugged my shoulders and handed her my cell. I figured that's what she was worried about before.

I didn't pay any mind as I walked back to my house for the day.

Okay, so in the first chapter, I said that this story would be 18 chapters. Not anymore. I shortened it just a little to make everything fit better. It's going to be 16 chapters now. (Hopefully it'll stay that way though.) 

Other than that, I'm not sure what else to say. 

So I'll leave you with an Italy saying. 

Asta-la-Pasta! 


End file.
